ST LOUIS (LALATE) – Kevin Durant is not dead. A fake Kevin Durant story surfacing online tonight claims that Durant has died this September 2012. Durant hasn’t been shot, he hasn’t died, and the source of the story is fake as well.

Kevin Durant is the latest celebrity to be struck by a false death report this week. Just days ago it was Skrillex and Chief Keef falsely reported dead. Before them it was Kanye West. But for the first time in recent memory, someone is trying to falsely report an athlete in NBA has died.

Celebrity fans battled a fake Skrillex death report just days ago when someone took a leading British news network’s template and inserted a false image of the musician. The story erroneous claimed “DJ Skrillex shot twelve times”. The fake story then read “Grammy-winning American dubstep musician, Sonny John Moore (Also known as “Skrillex”) was shot last night twelve times. He was pronounced dead earlier this morning.”

The culprit this time for Kevin Durant is the false retweet trick. Someone began this afternoon retweeting a message “RT @–_UPDATES: (According to the — Times) Kevin Durant been reported shot dead. Retweet for respect.” Some fans immediately pounced on the fake tweet as absurd and not even believable. Yet others fell victim to the false tale.

The Twitter account listed in the false death report didn’t tweet the news. In fact, that Twitter account is fake. While the account uses the name “–NN UPDATES”, it also uses the trademark, brand name, and logo of a leading national cable network. While stating in the sub caption “not affiliated”, the account has never tweeted a single message and never tweeted the Durant fake tale today.

The trickery wasn’t done there. Someone then added the words “According to the — Times”. The suggestion was that a leading national newspaper was the source of the absurd fake death report.

This is not the first time that Kevin Durant has been reported dead, however. The same was reported on or around October 2010. Kevin Durant is not dead. Adam Sandler hasn’t been snowboarding. And Morgan Freeman is very much alive.